Home Is Not A Place
by madelita
Summary: The adventure of a logic obsessed changeling and his magic using human brother goes as well as you'd expect.


_Hello everyone! I'm back with another something I might not ever finish. Happy First Encounter Day?_

 _All the thanks to Kensy Echo, Opal Spirit and Hebiaczek for helping my overly impulsive butt with this one._

 _Please enjoy!_

* * *

Shinichi sat with his legs folded under him in the middle of his room. The darkness of the evening draped over him like a cape, and he hid under it, afraid to be seen, even though he was on his own. Only the top of his head poked out into the ray of light stretching across his floor, as the moon looked inside through the window.

Shivers ran down his spine every second and he clenched his teeth to keep them from chattering. His blanket was lying on the ground, having been dragged from the bed looming behind him, forgotten.

And in front of him, there was a shoe box, filled with various things that he took out one by one.

There were bells, some as small as the ones on cats' collars, some a little bigger, like the ones people hung from Christmas trees. If they had strings or ribbons on them, Shinichi grabbed them by those, and let the hoops rest on his middle finger. They didn't use to take so much place, but now they reached then went past the first knuckle. At the sight, his heart beat faster, while bile rose to the back of his throat.

Then came a small jar with dried rowan fruit inside. The bottom of the jar was almost big enough to not fit on his outstretched palm, he knew even without trying, so he set it aside quickly before he could ponder on it too much.

Trinkets made of iron were the next. A small pair of scissors, toy soldiers, buttons, and other things. Though they might've been essentially worthless, great care was put into preserving them – not a single freckle of rust on the neatly polished surface. At least, this is how Shinichi remembered them – this time he placed them next to himself without much more than a glance.

Finally, there was a thick book. It was the largest thing in the box, and it almost didn't fit. Shinichi had to test the sides of the box to take it out. Once the book was in his hands, heavier than he remembered it to be, he flipped through the pages. He did it with care, as slowly as he could afford, not for the book's sake, but for what was kept between the pages. The first half of the book was for herbs – many kinds, Shinichi couldn't name them all, but he was certain that most of them weren't from Japan. The second half was for the clovers – four leaved for the most part, with a few five leaf clovers mixed in here and there. It was an impressive collection, just because of its sheer size. Shinichi grabbed a handful of the clovers and closed the book.

When the box was finally empty, he cast a look at the closed door of his room. Now, he was supposed to scatter these all over the house. Cover every door and every window, and not forget a single one. But when he tried to stand, he found he didn't have strength in his legs anymore.

The chill that shook his body turned into a fever. His clothes, too big, sagging, and wet, were almost burning his skin by now, but to change out of them would've been too much effort. Still, as goosebumps rose on the back of his neck, he gathered just enough energy to slip out of his green jacket then take off his shirt. He only discarded the jacket, though. The shirt remained clutched between his shivering fingers, and he set to turning it inside out. When he was done, he tried putting it on again – the cloth was too large for his body now, and he almost felt lost inside it.

He looked around himself. _At the very least,_ he thought, _this room should be safe._ For good measure, he threw some of the bells to the door, and the rest of them to the window, along with some iron trinkets and clovers. _This should do it._

Everything he had the strength to do, he did.

He called out.

"Kaito."

It occurred to him that he forgot to open the window, in that last half second, but it was already done. And it didn't even matter.

The curtain fluttered ever so slightly, and a violent shiver ran down Shinichi's spine from the wind slipping into his room.

When Shinichi turned, Kaito was perched on the windowsill. He was dressed in pure black, rather than white, and he looked like a shadow, just passing through. And even though Kaito stayed where he was, he was ready to bolt, to jump, to strike – Shinichi could see it on his stance. It was tenser than usual, and he didn't bother to hide his restlessness either, the way his fingers kept stretching and curling.

And his eyes, cold and wary, only added to that effect. It wasn't a look Shinichi has never seen, but this is the first time he saw no recognition in it.

A gulp, barely going past the lump in his throat. "It's me. Shinichi." He winced. He hated the pitch, the weakness of his voice - it was like someone else was talking in his stead.

Something in Kaito's eyes thawed anyway, and he walked closer. He paced the room with slow, cat-like steps that held all the control his hands didn't, still curling and stretching.

"What happened to you?" he asked after circling Shinichi once.

"I…" He felt dizzy, trying to remember it all. Earlier, with the policemen, he could recall and retell everything with vigour, but he was fuelled by adrenaline and the bewilderment at their faces and how they laughed at him. But the chase, the cold and the rain took a lot out of him and his already weakened body. "I got into trouble."

"I can see that," came the reply, paired with a wry smile. "What kind of fae have you bumped into?"

Shinichi shouldn't have been surprised that that was Kaito's first idea. He wasn't, when he thought about it. But his sense of logic and his loyalty to denying the supernatural was 16 years old, while his knowledge of magic… mere months, only.

"It was… poison. Not fae."

Kaito's hands stilled. He didn't move for a few moments, just looked, and looked, as if he could find an explanation. When he didn't, he knelt in front of Shinichi, then touched his chin lightly, prompting him to turn his head left and right. A light poke to his cheek – they were much rounder now, of course.

"Poison can't do something like this," Kaito said with a light frown. He reached for Shinichi's hand, turned it over between his own two hands and watched with a mix of fear and fascination.

"Apparently it can."

Kaito raised his head, looked in him in the eye again. "How do you know it _wasn't_ a fae?"

Shinichi sighed. That was the problem with the two of them – just as he was more inclined to believe that there should be a logical, non-supernatural explanation, Kaito was more likely to see magic as the reason to many things that came from elsewhere. "That man… he said it was a poison. Newly developed – it sounded more scientific than magical."

"And why do you think he was telling the truth?"

"Because he wasn't talking to me. He said it to the man who was with him."

Kaito hummed, still unconvinced. "What did they look like?"

Shinichi told him. He talked about the man with icy eyes and long silver hair, and his companion who was always hiding behind sunglasses. He talked about their clothes, about the way they held themselves, even the way they talked.

He felt sick, recalling it all, but he found he couldn't stop talking even then. And Kaito listened, eyes intent on him all the while. He looked like he still was trying to decide whether he believed that the boy in front of him was really Shinichi – a thought that made him feel even more desperate to say all the things he went through the past few hours – but when he was done, Kaito patted him on the shoulder like he always did when he was trying to reassure him.

"We'll figure this out, brother," Kaito said. The conspiring, almost joking tone he tended to use when calling Shinichi "brother" was gone now – he took the problem more seriously than that, it seemed. Shinichi's stomach sank.

"How?" Was it stupid of him, expecting an easy solution?

"I don't…" He paused. "If it wasn't magic, like you said, then there's no spell to reverse. But…" He nodded to himself. "There are ways you can change your appearance, maybe even restore this body of yours." Sensing Shinichi's worry, he smiled. "Don't worry. I'll help."

It couldn't dissolve Shinichi's fears entirely, but he felt the lump in his throat ease. Kaito's eyes were alight with something like fire, something like magic – it was a look Shinichi saw often, and it always calmed him, despite the madness it promised. All because he was certain that Kaito would watch over him even amidst that madness, no matter what.

Then, he ruined the moment with a sneeze.

Kaito was quick to grab the blanket behind him and draped it over his shoulder, until he was completely covered with it. And when he was about to complain about his wet clothes, he felt that he was already wearing something dry, while the things he was wearing earlier were lying in a wet pile behind Kaito.

"You need to stop doing that."

"Would you prefer to stay in those?" Kaito pointed at the pile. "No. I can't let my _little_ brother catch anything while I'm looking after him." He grinned.

Shinichi grumbled under his breath at that, but Kaito ignored him, as he choose to pick up all the charms Shinichi has scattered over the room before putting them back in the box, all while humming off-key some song Shinichi found vaguely familiar. 'Just so Shinichi could reach it, too,' he put the box at the bottom of the wardrobe – that earned him another set of grumbles, but not much more. Shinichi found that he was all too close to falling asleep.

"Shinichi!"

That came from the front door. And the voice was all too familiar.

"Ran…" He turned to Kaito. "What do we do?"

But Kaito was already picking him up, wrapped in the blanket as he was – embarrassingly easily. "We leave," he said. Shinichi nodded to himself – he couldn't be seen like this, it's better to hide. But then Kaito continued. "You've been here for too long anyway."

"What?" He tried pulling away, push at Kaito's shoulder to get out of his grip, but it wasn't as easy in his current body. Kaito grabbed his hand and tucked it back under the blanket again.

"I've told you before. Changelings don't stay here forever. And now it's time for you to leave."

In that moment, it couldn't have been more obvious where Kaito was raised. And by whom. Shinichi was always uneasy because of the uncaring nature he saw in fairies in the stories about them, and he recognized it in Kaito so clearly, it was enough to stun him.

And that was all Kaito needed.

A moment later, Shinichi's room was empty.


End file.
